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Description Page

Introduction 6

Chapter 1 8

Let us roll the RSS ball 8

Limitations of current E-mailing technology: 12

Features of RSS: 13

How to go about it? 14

Understanding RSS Document 14

Chapter 2 18

Why do the existing technologies suck? 18

Loopholes of the existing marketing technology: 18

The search Engines 20

Will E-mails last long? 20

Checking on SPAM: 21

RSS as a marketing tool 22

Chapter 3 23

A Peep into the RSS Terminology 21

Chapter 4 23

Why RSS remains hot now? 26

Unleashing the power of RSS in marketing and publishing 26

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Prompt delivery of your Internet content to end-users 27

Improving the old and discovering the new 29

Update your content as often as you want 29

Chapter 5 30

The technologies that crowns RSS 30

Pod casting and video casting: 30

Pod casting 31

How to Record Your Content 33

Launching Your Audio Files – Hosting 33

RSS for personalized/customized database listings: 36

Chapter 6 37

Marrying the new without divorcing the old 37

Honing your existing content delivery efforts 37

RSS in Direct Marketing 37

Improve your Search Engine Rankings 40

Make your contents reach other Web Media 41

Branded RSS Aggregators 42

Branded RSS Readers in Real-life 43

Developing your own RSS reader 43

Enhance Your web presence 46

Advertising through RSS 47

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The power of the emerging tool - RSS 46

Grab the power of RSS – free or at rock-bottom prices 50

Chapter 7 51

BLOGGING: Who knows, it can be your goldmine 51

Six most unique ways to get connected with readers for dollars 53

Businessman without a story? 54

Are you not interested in politics and current affairs? 56

The ethics you need to know before landing on the blog world 57

a) Stick to the topic: 57

a) Post on current, hot topics: 57

b) Be informative: 58

c) Clarity and simplicity: 58

d) Adhere to a schedule: 58

e) Not only quality, but also quantity matters: 59

f) Frequency: 59

g) Catchy keywords: 59

h) Spell-checking and proof reading: 60

i) RSS 60

j) Choose hot titles 61

Why people go for blogs? 62

Positive Reflections of blogging: 62

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Developing ideas: 63

Developing relations with others: 64

Representing oneself and tracing a path: 64

Spotting experts and cross-disciplinary connections: 65


Bonding, building and maintaining connections with others: 65
Blogging for ‘dollars’ using RSS: 66

A. Affiliate Programs (Product Endorsements) 66

B. Product Promotion 67

C. Banner Ads: 67

D. Advertisements in blog contents: 67

Chapter 8 69

Let us sail the RSS Boat 69

How to go about with RSS? 69

Which Version of RSS is more Popular? 71

Basic Elements of RSS: 71

Commonly Used Attributes: 72

Creating your own RSS feed: 74

So what do I need to know to create a RSS feed? 74

Step 1: Decide the content that you want to publish 75

Step 2: Creating the XML document 76

Step 3: Publishing your RSS feed 80


RSS Creating Software: 81

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How Do I Read RSS Feeds? 107
Conclusion 114

Introduction
“We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand
invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes
and return to us as results.”
- Herman Melville
Herman Melville lived in 19th century and the word internet, and RSS would not
have come into his mind even in his wildest dreams. Still, a lot of writers have
come and gone after him – I haven’t found a better statement to present our
context before you. Money has stirred an honest nest around us and although
money can’t be said to be everything in our life, it’s a fact that none of us can’t
live without dollars. We all crave for dollars and run after that using different
means. It’s these “means” that we select to run our business that matters. Putting
it in simple words, modern day business is all about connecting people.
Needless to say, those who connect to people in a better way, often succeeds.
Paradoxically, those who are armed with the latest technologies are capable of
connecting to people more successfully. Before the advent of RSS and blogs,
these technologies used to burn out a hole in your pocket. All those days are
gone. Now, if you have a website you only need some knowledge to make things
happen for you. It’s this vital knowledge that I am going to pass on you through
this book.
Again playing with Herman’s words, our lives are now indeed connected by a
thousand invisible threads. The only difference is that, unlike the times of
Herman, we connect these threads by the medium of internet. And as you know,
internet has become too crowded a place that reaching people through the net
has become a tough task. To make things further complicated, gone are the days
when your customers would have fallen to your marketing ad-words and click

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your “buy now” button without any hesitation. This is where RSS and blogs come
to picture.

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Chapter 1

Let us roll the RSS ball


Well, are you a net savvy who may fit into one of the following categories?
• You are usually in hurry and looking for something specific without
wanting to waste your valuable time.
• You think staring at computer screens hours together can be tiring for the
eyes. So prefer scanning text instead of reading word for word.
• You frequently end up on some webpage (not through the homepage) and
do not know how it fits into the rest of the website!
• You are a person expecting the information on the web to be up-to-date.
• You like to have privacy on the information you are interested in and
control over the numerous unwanted information popping and earning
your irritation.
• You welcome with great interest the latest methodologies, if that cannot
only save your precious time but also prove to be a powerful, versatile
method to keep you well updated faster than the conventional methods.

Are you an organization/marketer/publisher who has opted for Internet marketing


strategies, having created your website and has been on the constant run to win
more visitors to your site? Glance through the following points of which at least
some have caught your attention at one time or the other in your path of
business:

• Presence of millions of web pages gives you the challenging job of


hooking the visitors who may very easily move on to somebody else’s
website.

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• Having spent thousands of dollars creating your website, you feel it does
nothing to promote your organization. Should it not help you grow your
business at least to some extent, when so much pain is involved?
• You are on a long hunt for a suitable method of conversational marketing
on Internet, which can replace the so-far passive Internet marketing.
• Visitors do not trust web contents unless its credibility is clear.
• You wish to give a distinguishable look to your company with the help of a
blend of audio and video elements in your website.

Whichever category you may fall into – the former or the latter – here comes an
incredible solution, to your long-pondering questions! A drastic change from
traditional solutions to a highly effective methodology – RSS is the buzzword,
creating waves in today’s Internet world. RSS, an acronym for Really Simple
Syndication or Rich Site Summary, is a very cost effective method to bring your
information to your clients and ‘to-be-clients’. It is a viable alternative to produce
effective solutions to your numerous business needs.

RSS opens a new gateway to ever-flooding effective business strategies, never


existed before, and creates a new dimension in the way you reach out to the
public. When you, as a marketer/ businessman/company, decide to promote your
business through the marketing strategies of Internet, try to take the maximum
advantage of this interactive medium. When your website does not engage
visitors, then your web-based promotional efforts have been crippled. What are
the means to attract visitors to your website, when there exists a million dollar
question – whose website to visit? Given innumerable choices, just think of the
visitor’s plight to decide which one and whether he wishes to really come back
after his first visit.

RSS has a lot of advantages over the other existing methods, to turn it into the
most sought-after, powerful, influential tool, which will take over the Internet world
very soon, if understood fully and properly. It is basically a ‘push-based’

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communication method, which can be published and subscribed to easily. It can
be explained as a file containing the latest information and accessed by
subscribers who are interested.

Consider a website as a real-world conversation. We need to adopt the same


things just like while trying to sell our product to a sales prospect in person. RSS
has wonderful features, which embody the techniques of conversational
marketing in a very flexible way. Don’t you go through the following while
reaching out to the visitors? Glance through and see how RSS helps:

• First, you decide your goal and try to analyze what kind of audience your
website can get.
• What do the visitors get on visiting your website? Interview customers for
their feedback, do a research and make changes to your website
accordingly. The last part can be done very easily done using RSS feeds
(which we will see in detail in the later chapters).
• The look of your website is very important. RSS has made it very easy to
understand, see and feel your message for the visitors by mixing video
and audio channels to your contents. Also, keep in mind that not only is it
enough to have a good website but an appropriate one to your business
also, to catch your visitor’s eye.
• Make your website work well in all the browsers. Your website is open to a
variety of visitors who can prefer browsers of their choices. RSS is a
convenient way since it works on all platforms. Most of the browsers may
not face hurdles accessing RSS.
• Your website is the gold mine of information on how the public respond to
what you say. RSS provides an unbelievable platform to discuss the views
of the public without wasting time. Instead, you can spend your time on
crafting quality contents. RSS has got many special features such as
dialog facilitators, RSS radars, and automatic responders to enhance the
significance of conversational marketing.

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• You can collect a lot of information such as the number of subscribers,
their interests, their reading frequency, the topics they are more interested
in etc using RSS feeds. These are definitely going to be vital for improving
your standards of business.
• Your search engine ranking reflects how good your website is! RSS
increases the search engine ranking remarkably and well, again helps
develop your business.

Not only these! You can go on listing down the various advantages of RSS
which we will explore one by one after knowing about RSS in detail.

And do not think it’s a super-techie thing that you cannot use! Once you are
familiar with the tool, you are open to the amazing world of RSS and one day,
sure to find yourself hooked to it! Its going to be the beginning of an unbelievable
era, exploring deeper and deeper the many faces of RSS and of course, the web
world, through it! Though it can’t be an all-out replacement for other technologies,
it can be a standard to optimize your Internet experience.

So, what are you waiting for? Get going to know more about RSS in the following
chapters and unleash the power of this incredible, powerful tool!

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Limitations of current E-mailing technology:

Before knowing about the latest trendsetter RSS, let us discuss in length about
the current demerits faced by the organizations planning to offer e-mails or e-
newsletters to their subscribers. The organizations are meeting a great challenge
to catch the attention of their subscribers.

The users have second thoughts signing up, due to the junk mails flooding their
mailboxes. Even if they do sign in, the question of whether these mails draw their
attention pops up! With the technology world pacing through unimaginable
changes each and every minute, one needs to know how precious time is. Users
definitely may not want to even bother to open such mails, lest to read it.

With spam gaining momentum by the day, the question of mere survival of the
organizations’ mass deletion system hovers as a big challenge.

Now, people or precisely, organizations, resort to better, flexible methods of


communications. Obviously, with the enormous growth in technology, especially
in the internet, there is a need to switch over to more interesting ways of
communicating to the subscribers. Especially companies with smaller advertising
budget need to be innovative in their ways of communication through web.

This is where ‘push-based’ communications methods such as RSS come in.

RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. It can be
simply explained as a file containing the latest headlines, which can be published
and subscribed to easily. Major players such as Macromedia, Macromedia, Blue
Cross Blue Shield, and IDC have begun going in for RSS, not for just effective
communication, but also for augmenting visibility of their websites, thus
increasing traffic to their sites. End of the day, these organizations update their
customers without worrying about ‘mass deletion’!

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Before going in depth about Really Simple Syndication, knowing what RSS is will
give us a vivid picture of this new technology.

Features of RSS:
We can define RSS more technically as a lightweight, topical, metadata and
syndication format. Let us look into each feature to get a vivid picture:

Lightweight:
This is a very important feature looked upon by many users as one of the
reasons to prefer RSS tool. RSS is very small, in the sense – it requires less
space, usually less than a hundred kilobytes of space. RSS files are XML
documents, which can be written using any text editor (Word, notepad,
emacs, vi etc) very easily.

Topical:
RSS highlights what you think is important on your page and that would be
the contents seen by the other readers. For example, if you are a news
organization, you may want to focus on the latest headlines, if you are a
businessman you may want to showcase about your products or if you are a
publisher you may want to throw light on your latest book releases.

Metadata:
Metadata is the information about your data. You can embed details about
your data in your RSS file. For example, who wrote the article you are
highlighting or how often your RSS file will be read to see if you have added
any information.

Syndication:

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As we have already seen that it is to present a snapshot, in a specified
formatted file, of what you consider most important about your site at the
moment.

How to go about it?


As a provider, the first step is to collect the latest news, announcements or any
information you wish to give subscribers. Then you create ‘RSS document’, a
summary of the collected information.

The next step is to register the document with an RSS publisher. Once it is
registered, anyone using an RSS reader can get it from the publisher or directly
from your site.

Understanding RSS Document


An RSS document is made up of ‘items’, comprising a title, a link to the content
and a description of that item. For instance, for a news article, the title will be like
a headline, the link will take readers to the news article and the description will
summarize the news they’ll find on clicking the link to visit your site. The items
are grouped into a ‘channel’ or ‘feed’. This is the name you assign to your
ongoing series of RSS documents.

RSS documents are created in XML, or Extensible Markup Language, which is


fast becoming the markup language for the Web. HTML tags instruct the browser
how to display content (fonts, images or otherwise); XML tags define the nature
of the information. Do not panic! Proficiency in XML is not a prerequisite to create
RSS documents. The non-technical can seek the help of various tools of
conversion available.

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The XML file can be updated manually or by using modules to increase the
speed of the process. The feed is prepared by transforming the RSS file into
HTML. A scripting command named server-side include is used to place the
content on the Web page as a template. Once the module has been developed,
it’s really just a matter of sitting back and letting the content stream in.

The files can be accessed from your own Web site or by registering your feed
with content aggregators, or sites that list various feeds. Individual RSS readers
can subscribe directly to your feeds through these options. Other Web sites can
also do the same, bringing more hits to your content!

You, as a content manager, can subscribe to other sites’ or aggregators’ feeds


as well. This will provide your site visitors with news and material that you may
not have the time to develop.

Essentially, bloggers and news sites, such as The Wall Street Journal Online and
The New York Times Digital, have been the early adopters of this technology,
mutually benefiting in terms of updates and increased visibility. The feeds keep
the blog visitors informed and updated without having them to visit it daily. We
can very well put it that if not for the existence of the feeds, the response for
“blogs” would not be this increasing. And the hope of getting the like-minded
people to post the site content is very high.

Nowadays, it has become inevitable for buyers of software products, as it helps


them stay up-to-date on product news, development, support etc. Not just this,
users save time too! The journalists are switching over to RSS for press
releases and pitch letters.

The use of RSS is becoming very essential for companies, which have lots of
information to share, small budget and internet-savvy audiences. It serves as a
boon not only to the organizations wanting to widen their visibility, but also to

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users who always like to stay up-dated about the contents they eagerly wait to
taste upon.

The number of RSS feeds offered by an organization often depends on the


requirements of their subscribers, nature of the news from it, the ongoing
research at the organization, the speed with which the contents are updated, the
number of subscribers etc.
The RSS also helps the customers in managing the information flow not just from
the organizations, but from a variety of data sources also.

Many of the RSS providers are in turn RSS subscribers also of several
technology-oriented feeds to keep them in par with the latest information about
other sites also. Though many people have the interest to update themselves
they may not have the time to do it. Visiting each and every website, they enjoy
seeing for any new addition to the contents, is a very time consuming process.
The RSS aggregators help you to quickly view where a new content is appearing
and whether it is of interest to you. For companies who do not update their news
daily or for those who do not do it even once a week, but who are keen in
informing their subscribers when they do it, this can be the best method which
costs nothing at all. RSS is really standards orientated and the payback is really
high for the companies.

When the companies provide different RSS feeds, it also helps them find out the
area of interest of their subscribers. For example, let us consider a company
having different RSS feeds such as on press releases, blogs, new research
announcements, company news, columns etc. Depending on the traffic on the
RSS feed, the company can gauge the interest of the visitors. It may therefore try
to focus more on providing to the thirst of the users.

It is also important to mention here that big companies, corporate are very much
benefited by the use of RSS. There are occasions when even the employees

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within big companies may not know the latest news or the new ongoing research
of the company due to lack of communication among the various departments.
Here RSS lends a helping hand! Make use of RSS feeds; stay updated all the
time. After all, we know how crucial it is to be informed about what is happening
in your company!!

The content managers can go for effective redesign of their websites developing
new content sharing tools to promote information and build awareness among
the members.

In spite of many added points in favor of RSS, we can also totally not deny the
fact that it can be a value-added addition to the current day communication
methods, however, cannot replace e-mails completely.

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Chapter 2
Why do the existing technologies suck?

We are aware of different current key elements of marketing over the net like
Advertisements through Internet, E-mail marketing and publishing, search engine
marketing and optimization, e-commerce, business blogging, branding and many
others. But these can be considered as separate entities being driven by different
corporate roles and having its own proprietary set of Internet tools.

Of course, there are some tools that are multi-purpose. But, there has never
been a powerful tool like RSS that is trust-worthy, Spam-free flexible and most of
all enhances the power of the different key elements of Internet marketing.

It is sure to produce incredible business and marketing results in the future.

Loopholes of the existing marketing technology:

It is needless to say that SPAMS, enabled by the "democratic" nature of e-mail,


has ended up driving the mere purpose of this once-upon-a-time best method to
peril.
• The companies have to fight their way to acquire the recipient’s email
id, seek permission lest to be assured of their content being delivered.
Many internet users prefer a big ‘NO’ in signing up to avoid wasting
time deleting the unwanted mails from their inboxes. Why not nip the
trouble in the bud itself?
• Talking about the companies, who have at last succeeded in their
objective, they have still a long way to go for their content to reach the
target mailboxes. They are faced with various Spam barricades from
the recipient’s Internet Service Provider.

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• After getting through the ISP barricades the message needs to
"combat" the various filters in place on the user-side, such as third-
party spam filters, usually partnered with an e-mail client Spam filter.
All this to make sure that nothing that even looks like Spam gets
through.
Then, again the user quickly scans the messages, eliminating the most obvious
Spam, and on top of that often also performs an in-depth scan to finally decide
what messages he can delete, what to be moved to the dreaded "to read" folder
(which never gets read) or what to be actually read.

Any proof whether the messages will be read after having got through so many
barriers is truly uncertain.
• This obviously means more than 50% of lost sales and relationship
opportunities. How much does that amount to in losses in a few years?
• Important messages and updates for your existing customers are getting
lost as well. This in turn will affect your follow-up sales and after purchase
relationship building activities.
• Some rules which are currently implemented by the US CAN-SPAM
legislation are putting legitimate e-mail publishers at risk. Instead of
putting check on the real spammers, they threaten legitimate senders.

Can you believe? Many people end up calling their subscribers to check on their
receipt of their message. Is it not obvious that the very purpose of e-mails is
smashed down here?

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The Search Engines:

The e-mail content delivery problem is joined with the ever-growing number of
websites, all competing for the attention of the same visitors and the same
search engines. Though Search engines are still the No.1 traffic generator for
most websites, getting high rankings for our website is getting more difficult with
each passing day. Unless we are able to reach out to our prospects and
customers, chances of us selling the products and building relationships with
them is very meager.

Of course, we could use Pay-Per-Click advertising (sponsored keywords), but


Pay-Per-Click prices are getting completely out of control. Many marketers can
no longer keep up with high prices and can no longer generate a positive
response with their campaigns. The demand is just too high.

Will E-mails last long?

• The companies mainly dependent on e-mails for their Internet content to


reach the target audience. This serves as the sole medium existing
between the senders and the receivers.
• On the other hand, consumers depend on e-mails again to receive the
contents from the companies as per their requirements.
• We better put it that while the marketers and the publishers struggle to
deliver their contents through e-mails, the internet users fight to control the
content consumption through e-mails.

With such existing pressures whether e-mails can continue to serve as the
channel for content delivery and content consumption is arguable.

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The world is fast changing from a push-based information delivery where you
send information via e-mails to pull-based information delivery where the
subscriber accesses your information as and when he wants.

Checking on SPAM:

To bring down the hazards caused by Spam, there are some solutions, which are
in the development stages but, yet not put into operation:

• The Sender Id (intended to verify an e-mail sender’s identity), being


developed by Microsoft.
• Next comes the Bonded Sender Program in which the e-mail senders
have to pay certain fee to get their e-mail messages delivered, just like
traditional mail postage. Again, this may not be useful for small companies
who have midget budgets! We are looking for some solution, which would
benefit all the users of Internet alike.

Though we cannot deny that most of the marketers and publishers still depend
on e-mails, we must surely admit that e-mail is no longer the content delivery
vehicle it once was and we have to devise methods to compliment it with other
new fruitful channels.
The multi-purpose tool RSS has many feathers on its cap and has every
probability of emerging as the tool for this Internet era.

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RSS as a marketing tool

RSS is a technology that has the potential to overcome the Internet marketing
challenges we are facing today. From the marketing point of view, not only is it
simple to use publishing tool for marketers and publishers, but also has the
versatility allowing contents to be delivered to the target users and other “content
consumers”. These criteria enhance the marketers and publishers to achieve
their business goals.

• Its ability to influence the entire key internet marketing elements, especially
content delivery to end-users and improving search engine rankings is
unprecedented.

• It is unique in the way it forces marketers to become more relevant and


sensitive to the needs of their target audiences.

Its reach does not stop just with marginal penetration, but exploring many fields
and the usage is growing with exhilarating speed. RSS is already used by the
majority of the reputable media sites, by a satisfactory number of corporations
and by almost “all” bloggers.

RSS is fast becoming the de-facto standard for pull-based information delivery
because the user can anonymously subscribe to your feed, judge your content
and stay subscribed as long as he wants to. He can unsubscribe at will, without
any problems and delays.

And what’s more? It also eliminates a large part of the external noise and
shortcomings of other delivery channels .In addition, RSS content can be
delivered to other websites; such as search engines, specialized RSS directories,
special content aggregation sites and other site types.

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Chapter 3
A Peep into the RSS Terminology

RSS content is delivered through RSS feeds. These are simple files structured in
a specific way. [A type of xml]

RSS stands for either Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary. RSS
files (which are also called RSS feeds or channels) simply contain a list of items.
Usually, each item contains a title, summary, and a link to a URL. RSS files look
a lot like HTML code. . It is up to the user to use this information in any way that
he wants.

You should provide an RSS feed if you want to distribute your information to a
vast and fast-growing community of users, who are more interested in knowing
about your topic. In general, people who write articles or publish newsletters
benefit the most. Most blog software allows you to offer RSS feed of the blog
posts. You can also offer your press releases through an RSS feed.

In general, anything that you publish frequently can be offered as an RSS feed.
For example in the share market, the prices of the shares are always fluctuating.
People holding shares or those who are interested in that business would like to
stay updated about the price of their shares. When RSS feeds are created for
such fields it will be of very great use undoubtedly.

Soon, you will find online retailers and other catalog companies also offering
RSS feeds of their product range.

There are 2 main components of a RSS feed.

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• Channel: A channel is the total collection of items you wish to highlight in
your site. There is exactly one channel per RSS file.
• Item: Item is a single thing you wish to highlight from your site. There is at
least one, but no more than 15 items per channel. But it is better to limit to
6 items per channel.
• RDF: RDF is the mother specification of RSS.

Example – You may create a RSS feed about all articles on your web site. That
is, articles covering different topics in one RSS feed.

Then the channel will contain information about the feed (“Read articles on
various subjects”), the location (web site address or URL) and a short description
of the content you have written about.

There will be multiple items in the RSS Feed. Each item will have information
about one article (the title, author, category, short description and the URL where
the article may be found).

The user may see the index in a suitable viewer called RSS aggregator or
reader, display the contents on a web page, or use it in any other way he thinks
fit.

An aggregator, as the name suggests, is a piece of software that collects content


from many websites that publish new content regularly (CNN, New York Times,
Wired, etc.) provide a list of headlines of the latest content. In addition to
displaying these headlines on their own websites, it is very common for
publishers to make them available for syndication, so that other websites or
applications can also include their headlines. When a website has an RSS feed,
it is said to be “syndicated”.

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The RSS aggregators come in many different forms and flavors. The most
popular are desktop applications and RSS aggregation Web services.
In the case of desktop RSS aggregators, end-users have to download
them to their computers and install them there.
In RSS aggregation Web services, on the other hand, the users can
create their own accounts and then use those websites to view RSS
content directly from their Web browsers.
After installing an RSS aggregator or registering at a web-based RSS aggregator
web Service, the user needs to proactively add the link to your RSS feed in to the
Aggregator to view your content.

When any new content item is modified or updated in the RSS feed, the user is
notified of that through his RSS aggregator. The content is also immediately
available to him, without having to face any SPAM filters and other obstacles on
the way.

RSS being essentially a pull-content delivery channel, that is, in order to receive
content via RSS the end-users need to subscribe to the RSS feeds they desire.
Content cannot be delivered to people who have not granted permission to be
contacted by you. At the same time, the other side of the coin is also true! The
user who had given permission once can revoke it instantly, taking away your
capability of communicating to them.

This fact makes the marketers and publishers more alert and force them to send
only relevant information to their subscribers. Therefore, the chance of the user
stopping the subscription suddenly is very remote. He is assured of receiving
only information that is of use and interest to him. This is why exactly RSS is very
powerful.

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Chapter 4

Why RSS remains hot now?

Unleashing the power of RSS in marketing and


publishing:

Unlike other Internet marketing and publishing tool, RSS can power multiple key
Internet marketing and publishing elements and activities in different areas:

• Prompt delivery of your Internet content to end-users.


• Increasing the visibility of your website and thereby generating more
traffic/visitors to your website.
• Powering your Internet public relations through RSS conversations.
• Enhancing your web presence.
• Serving as an advertisement platform for publishers and advertisers.

To throw light on the power of RSS, it is essential to explore the topics one by
one.

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1. Prompt delivery of your Internet content to end-users

The first step in marketing your product is to get your content delivered to
end-users. Only then can you communicate to them, sell your products and build
lasting relationships with them. As we have already seen, some Internet
information delivery channels fail in their purpose as in the case of e-mails. This
in turn throws most of our publishing efforts to gutters. We end up wasting
money, efforts and most of all the precious time. Direct marketing, direct selling,
relationship building, public relations through direct communication with media,
communicating with your business partners and employees, direct advertising of
your products, customer announcements and updates all these are made
impossible if your content cannot be delivered to the end-users. End users can
be your customers, prospects, the media, business partners and employees.

RSS assures 100% delivery of the contents to the people who have willingly
subscribed for your information.

Below are some general examples of the contents you can deliver to your
various subscribers:
• Newspapers can use RSS feeds to deliver their latest news articles to the
subscribers. This enables them to always stay informed about the flash news
around the globe. The book publishers can use RSS feeds to announce their
best sellers. This would help their users to keep track of releases they are
most interested in.
• RSS feeds can help the affiliate managers to communicate with their
affiliates.
• Banks can create RSS feeds to post their customers on their new schemes
on savings or any change in the interest rates calculated etc.
• Software being the hottest on the current technology market, software
companies can keep their subscribers informed on the latest downloads and
relevant software packages available. They can also provide them with easy

27
access to software updates, delivered to them exactly as they become
available without the fuss of having to visit your website or deal with huge e-
mail attachments. Thus avoiding Spam filters or other barricades
straightaway.
• A few hundred content publishers are using RSS to deliver audio content,
such as interviews even radio shows.
• Some websites allows people to post pictures, videos and text from their
mobile phones via RSS feeds.
• Educational institutions use RSS to deliver educational content.
• As a supplement to their e-mail delivery some use RSS feeds to deliver their
newsletters.
• RSS feeds can help you publish living digital catalogues of your products and
provide your customers with your latest product releases. The products may
be categorized so that it is easier to view and place order according to the
product they are interested in.
• RSS auto responders with scheduled messages can be created to keep in
constant marketing touch with your prospects and slowly get them to the point
of purchase.
• You can provide limited-access content to your customers, employees, team
members and even investors, without fearing other unwanted eyes. RSS
feeds can be used for internal communications, team working and other
needs.

As you can see, through RSS, practically any kind of content to practically any
kind of target audiences can be delivered. The only thing to be kept in mind is the
content has been broken down into several individual items or stories. The
opportunities for integrating RSS in to your communicational strategies are
endless. There are no limits to what, who and how you can communicate through
RSS.

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Improving the old and discovering the new:

RSS can be used to improve your existing content delivery efforts and also
provides you with an abundance of new publishing and marketing opportunities.
This was not definitely available through other content delivery channels.

Update your content as often as you want:

Here we point out the frequency with which the content can be updated. Can you
ever think of hourly updates via other content delivery vehicles? RSS feeds can
provide the subscribers not only with daily updates but also hourly updates. You
need not hold on your important messages, news and other content for a month
or even a week to include it in your e-zone. Make use of RSS to update your
content as often as you want and your subscribers won’t mind.

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Chapter 5
The technologies that crowns RSS

Pod casting and video casting:

Until recently, the Internet was predominantly a textual channel without much
interesting facts to desire for it more! Adding audio and video to the mix,
delivering both via RSS, goes beyond the basic capabilities provided by the
traditional Internet content delivery channels. Rich media personalizes the
Internet experience and gives your company a distinguishable face. At the same
time, it provides you with a media platform to make your message very easy to
understand, see and feel.

Just imagine the following things:

Delivering press releases in audio or video.


Presenting video demonstrations of your products.
Doing audio interviews to expand your reach and provide more content to
your visitors.
Delivering video and audio contents to demonstrate how your customers
and readers can easily resolve various issues that you are helping them
with.
Instead of using impersonal e-mails seeking the help of audio and video to
deliver important messages to your readers, customers, business partners
or employees makes the contents more interesting for the users.

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Pod casting
By the term Pod casting, we mean delivery of audio contents by Internet. The
word “pod casting” is an amalgam of the word broadcasting and the name of the
popular MP3 player from Apple Computer called the “iPod”. It is not necessary
that an iPod is required to pod cast. In fact, pod casts can be used with a variety
of digital audio formats and play on almost any MP3 player or portable digital
audio device - as well as any brand of desktop computer or laptop.

Definition: Pod casting is the process of capturing an audio event, song,


speech, or mix of sounds and then posting that digital sound object to a Web site
or “blog” in an RSS feed. Once the contents are posted, users can subscribe to a
web page containing these RSS feeds and download them directly into an audio
management program like Windows Media Player, Music Match etc. For this,
they can use specialized newsreaders like iPodder or iPodderX.

After having synchronized their portable audio device with their personal
computer, the user can listen to the audio contents whenever he wishes since
the pod casts are automatically transferred to that device.

Pod casting may look similar to a Digital Video Recorder (DVR) but the aspect in
which it differs is that the recorded content is delivered in it’s final format to a
portable device that is independent of the recording.

After having created the audio contents using audio capture tools and audio
editing tools, the file is transferred to the website by different methods like
FTP/HTTP etc. Then the content is prepared in a specific structured format via
XML tags to form the RSS feeds, which can be downloaded using RSS
newsreaders such as iPodder or iPodderX.

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You are here to make money out of these modern day tools and the fact is that
people are already doing this. It’s better if you can glance through some of the
pod cast directories like, http://www.podcast.net , http://podcastdirectory.com
and http://www.blogexplosion.com/podcast/index.php . They will also provide
you with a brief idea on the topics, which are normally dealt with through pod
casting. As you can see there in the directory, the business section has got many
pod casters there. This means that pod casting is evolving as a viable medium
for the business people to connect to their prospective or existing clients and
between themselves. Though you see only a few pod casts there, that doesn’t
mean that only this much pod casts are available there through the medium of
internet. The fact is that, only some of them are listed in this particular directory.
Even then, pod casting arena is not overcrowded and you can just laugh all the
way to your bank, if you start immediately. Before going into full swing, I suggest
you to glance through these directories or any other similar directories and play
some of the files there. Study the files that are having maximum listeners there
and then work out your strategy. Don’t ever bombard your listeners with your
business outputs alone. First step is to create an amiable atmosphere for your
listener. It’s only in the second step that, you can show them a welcome sign for
your products. And that too should be done only as a gesture to help people out
there. As far as your browser is concerned, opera is the best option available
right now, for all RSS related activities. However IE7 beta has got many features
although it’s now available only for software developers.

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How to Record Your Content

All you need is a microphone and audio recording software to make your
presence felt in the pod casting world. Microphones are available right from $5
and you can buy one according to your requirements. A free audio editing
software, audacity can be used for your editing needs.

Launching Your Audio Files – Hosting

When you are ready to make your presence felt with your sound, you need to
upload or export your pod cast so that others can download it. You can use a lot
of services for hosting your pod cast. Our media is such a service, which is free.

There you are……………………..

Your pod cast can be published with the help of a service like feed burner. Mind
you, you are in the big league now, among those rare breed, who are ready to
explore with the latest in technology. After all, you are only gaining for the
simplest of the reason that you are doing every thing absolutely free, if not a very
negligible investment. Remember, success is not something that knocks on your
door to embrace you. On the other hand, it’s you who has to crave for it.

“There are two types of people - those who come into a room and say, “Well,
here I am!” and those who come in and say, “Ah, there you are.”
- Frederick L. Collins

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Video casting or VOD casting (also called “vlogging”) - the “VOD” stands for
“video-on-demand. It denotes delivery of video contents through Internet. The
content is more likely to be played on a laptop than a PMA (personal media
assistant) due to their newness and relative expense.

Obviously, these contents allow you to communicate via rich media messages. It
not only makes the content more attractive and powerful, but also enables more
personal “conversation” with your users.

The procedure for creating RSS feeds for Video casting is almost similar to that
of Pod casting. But here for the creation of video contents you use video capture
tools then video editing tools and then file is transferred to web page using
FTPs/HTTPs and RSS feeds are created just like in the case of pod casting.
However, to-date we do not have any newsreader software specifically designed
for VOD casting. We might as well as use the newsreaders such as iPodder
/iPodderX or Play Pod etc.

Moreover, pod casting and video casting form the basis of new business models,
giving you the opportunity to expand your product base to include these formats
with higher perceived value. Since you can now demonstrate the usage of key
products via online video, which can easily impress everything you need to
convey to your customers, the customer education and support are improved as
well.

With the help of RSS you can deliver critical software updates and patches to
your existing clients as and when it is available. This relieves the work of
customer having to visit your website every week to see if the update is available
for downloading or not. This is called as Appcasting.

The latest news on your products, releases and updates can be grabbed by the
users now in an easy-to consume way. Using RSS, you can provide your

34
customers with simple tools so that they can create their own product feeds.
When new products that precisely matches their interests become available they
are immediately notified. A change in the product portfolio also reflects in the
contents of the RSS feeds that your customers are subscribed to.

Consider for example, your customer is doing a search via the search engine for
knowing about one of your product categories. Let us suppose, he receives a link
to the RSS feed for those very same search results. He is immediately notified in
case of the RSS feed whether the product matching his terms is released or
available for order. Whereas using search engines though produces the result,
takes a longer time and of course, has a limitation that for his next requirement
he has to perform the search from the scratch again.

Even complex searches can be achieved as well through RSS. If your customer
is looking for a particular product in a specific price range, delivering the same
search results is very much possible via RSS. When the required product
matching his terms including the desired price is available, the customer is
notified instantly. No wasting time searching again and again. The release
reaches them directly.

Not just this! The same approach that many are using for e-mail alerts can be
user for RSS also. The customers can be asked to fill up some forms which
states clearly their criteria and then they can be given access to an RSS feed to
stay updated about the products meeting their criteria. The advantage in RSS is
no mails flooding the inbox and no leakage of personal information like e-mail id
which some prefer not to disclose. RSS is anonymous and it is the customer’s
choice when to read it!

35
RSS for personalized/customized database listings:

Similar to the product updates even personalized or customized database listings


are possible using RSS. Any kind of complex information can be extracted
depending on the requirements of your visitor.
For example,
Job listings
Dating
Real estate etc

When they are given access to their own personalized RSS feed they can get the
content delivered to them directly if it is what they are looking for. The content
delivery prospects and business development models seen on the horizon
geared by RSS are seemingly endless.

When already with Internet the globe has shrunken to a larger extent, the
launching of RSS can contribute to the shrinkage even further!! Can you believe?
The day is not far when you can keep track of your packages delivered by
FedEx,UPS etc through RSS feeds. How about receiving an SMS on your mobile
notifying that a new job matching your criteria is available or an alert reminding
you about the last date to return your library material?

Sounds great, is it not? This is not all. There are ample business opportunities
made possible with RSS. And each of them in a way improves lives of end-users
making it a bed of roses!

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Chapter 6

Marrying the new without divorcing the old

Honing your existing content delivery efforts

RSS is not only about discovering the new, but also about improving the old.
RSS technology can be used as a supplementary content delivery channel to the
existing e-zine and other content delivery efforts. This will enhance the power of
the old content channels thereby expanding business prospects. People who are
hesitant to give out their e-mail addresses to Internet publishers and who refuse
to sign-up due to endless junk mails will surely prefer an anonymous RSS feed.
Allow your subscribers two options – either via e-mail or RSS
Reply the subscribers through RSS option as well, instead of depending
only on e-mail auto responders
Use RSS feed to announce the availability of your product in addition to
your e-mail options
Provide RSS feeds to certain e-zine sections like news section to update
your subscribers as and when news hits the desk.

RSS in Direct Marketing


RSS can have an astounding performance in the field of direct marketing. It can
outshine the e-mail marketing if understood properly by the marketers.
• Scheduled and Auto responder messages

37
You can develop the relationship with your customers through these
scheduled and auto responder messages, which can be given through RSS
feeds. When your visitor subscribes to your special RSS feed, he can receive
a pre-determined set of messages for better communication with your
subscribers. Use the messages to welcome him, to thank your new customer
for purchasing the product, send him additional information about the ordered
product. You can also provide him with the opportunity to buy an additional
product at a lower price tag by giving him some special discounts after a
couple of days and so on.

• Tracking through RSS feeds


Lot of information useful to your business can be fetched using RSS
feeds. You can keep a track of the number of your subscribers, their
reading habits, and their reading frequency to your click-through rates and
activities after clicking-through from your feed. Spot the RSS feeds which
perform better and get the feel about the taste of your subscribers, the
topics they are more interested to know etc. Getting these feedbacks via
RSS feeds helps you to drive more sales. The same thing applies for
individual content items as well.
• Targeting customized messages
Apart from the collective feedback about subscribers’ response on a
particular RSS feed, spotting the interests of your individual subscribers
can also be done since these feeds are dynamically generated on a per-
user basis. To increase your sales success, target tailor-made marketing
messages directly to them, depending on the individual needs and
interests about your products.

• Message personalization
When you generate tailor-made messages for each individual user, you
can also personalize these feeds. You can include personal data elements
such as the subscriber’s first name, his postal address etc. You can still go

38
further for more advanced personalization with respect to your products
like product recommendations and so on.

• Collection of Data
You can provide a simple or complex opt-in form to the visitors asking
them to fill in the details like his name, interests, the current products he is
using, his current position in the purchase cycle, whether he is going for
purchase of new brands and so on. You can allow them to access your
RSS feeds only when these details are given. Thus extraction of data is
achieved easily. This can work with e-zine subscriptions, as well as forms
you require your visitors to fill in to either register on your website or
download your free report or whitepaper.

All these features are already available in many RSS publishing/marketing


solutions, at very acceptable prices affordable even by the small budget
companies.

2. Enhance the visibility of your website and generate


more traffic:

RSS can be a value-added revolution in the marketing field. For many marketers
and Internet publishers RSS is one tool, which can improve their online visibility
and generate more visitors.

39
Improve your Search Engine Rankings
RSS has been documented to bring a great impact on the traditional search
engine rankings. Even sites supposedly with low traffic are pushed to first-page
sites positions for their key search engine keywords and phrases after switching
over to RSS feeds. This is due to the fact that RSS feeds increases the number
of inbound links to the site, the specific RSS feed format, and tight RSS feed
focus and RSS-specific search engine strategies. These provide the search
engines with strong and focused content streams from publisher’s website. RSS
publishers get more attention by search engines and directories since RSS
contents are still scarce.
We can now see an example to make things clear and feel how much it is easier
in RSS. We take the example of Yahoo! To get listed it used to take more than a
month but now can now do so in about just 24 hours using the following three
simple steps:

1. Start your own My Yahoo page.


Just go to http://my.yahoo.com and sign in. If you don’t have a yahoo Id, sign
up.
2. Add the ‘Add to My Yahoo’ button to your site.
For this, go to http://my.yahoo.com/s/button.html. and get the HTML code for
the button.
3. Click on that button and confirm.
That is all. You have just announced your feed to Yahoo!

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Other RSS search engine optimization strategies are also as simple as this one
to implement.

Increase the number of visitors through RSS Search


Engines, Directories and Content Aggregators

You have numerous options available like RSS- specific search engines,
directories and content aggregators to further publicize your RSS feeds and your
RSS content, to generate additional exposure, which was never available before.

These will introduce your site to new audiences, making the content more
accessible and at the same time improve your search engine rankings by
providing you with relevant inbound links to your site.

Make your contents reach other Web Media

Some publishers though may have the interest to provide their visitors with more
high-quality content but cannot generate on their own can make use of RSS
feeds in doing so.
RSS is the standard for Internet content syndication and it makes it easy to get
your content published on other websites also. The very same feeds you are
using to deliver your content to end-users can be taken by other sites to display
your content, while providing links back to full-text versions of that content on
your own site.

This ensures the following:


• You will be able to get new visitors especially those interested in the topic
you are covering. Each of these visitors can be turned to a new subscriber
or customer with the help of your effective marketing skills.

41
• More exposure to your site and thereby your products. Only when you are
sure of the fact that there has been an increased number of visitors to
your site can there be hopes of new buyers.
• When someone syndicates your content they are actually giving you an
endorsement, increasing your credibility and your perceived brand-value.
• Depending on the number of visitors and the response, planning for the
next move of your business is made easier.

3 Branded RSS Aggregators

You are opened to so many advanced RSS marketing tactics which are for the
most part still unknown to the majority of the marketers. One such tactic is
marketing with branded RSS readers. For example, when NewsGator announced
the launch of their Newsgator Media Platform to give media companies a
branded RSS reader they can promote to their visitors and at the same time
increase their brand exposure and achieve a more personal contact with readers.

There are both free as well as fee-based aggregators available in the market.

Larger players prefer to step in to this market, since using RSS readers not only
provides not only a unique way to reach out to consumers but also connect them
in a personal way. At the same time, your purpose of marketing is also served.

Let us consider that you are marketing through e-mails to your customers and
prospects interacting everyday and using it as part of their lives and daily
activities. You will definitely find a hard-to-believe difference when you use
branded RSS aggregator. It can be a daily used tool, keeping your brand

42
constantly in front of your customer, and also a one-touch interaction tool
between the customer and your company.

Branded RSS Readers in Real-life

There are notable branded RSS readers like Quikonnex Desk view, Customer
Reader, which are made available to their RSS publishers to distribute to their
own visitors. Each publisher can brand the reader by including their RSS feed in
it from the start and changing the initial copy of what end-users see when they
launch the reader.

The interesting features include branded interface skins, forced RSS feeds,
personalized contact and other key information and a special notifications area to
bring your content closer to the end-user.

We are sure to see more and more advanced marketing opportunities integrated
directly in to the RSS reader.

Developing your own RSS reader

It is good to have your own branded RSS aggregator to give the customers and
visitors thereby increasing the potential. With many RSS reader developers
available in the market it is not difficult or expensive. Even small companies with
midget budgets can go for choosing their own RSS reader.

Keeping in mind the following features, one may design his own RSS reader.
• If the company offers RSS feed customization to cater to the subscribers’
needs then the RSS feed customization module is essential.
• A visually branded software interface.

43
• Ad serving module, that has the capacity of serving targeted company ads
to the users through the reader, based on their browsing/content
consumption habits.
• Notification module, which keeps the user, informed when new content
items appear to facilitate the communications between the company and
the customers.
• Communications module, through which the user can send messages to
the company, and even receive feedback. This can even include a
customer support system.
• Web store module which allows the user to browse the company’s product
line through the actual RSS reader and even place orders.
• Pre-installed company RSS feeds, presumably spotlighted in the reading
list. This can be personalized, if possible. You can design such that it
would automatically provide a personalized feed for each identified RSS
reader user and automatically provide him with content matching his
needs through the company feeds. For example product support content
updates.
• Direct access to product information such as product pricing, user
manuals, FAQs, product forums etc.
• You can provide an option to the user to customize his aggregator with his
own affiliate links for the company’s products or it can be even his own
and then re-distribute it to his own visitors.
• Integrated forum, to enable the user to communicate with your company
customers/partners. This can open up a new door to discussions on vital
topics to bring about positive points to the business prospects.
• Direct access to other information. Consider a publishing company
providing a customized RSS reader to its users. It can give its users the
opportunity to read its book excerpts directly from the RSS reader.

44
Thus RSS reader can act as a one-stop interaction point between the user and
the company. It is needless to say that RSS readers help to achieve a concrete
relationship and sales oriented interactivity between them.

Enhance your web presence

The topics covered so far throws light on the different features marketers and
publishers can utilize, via RSS tool, for publishing their own content. However,
RSS can also be used to enhance your own website and enable you to provide
more relevant content to your visitors.

You can display contents from RSS feeds of other publishers on your website.
This will help you to provide more content source to your visitors. Whenever the
users are in need of the specific content that you provide access to, they visit
your website also and this results in more loyal visitors and build relationship with
the customers. It can end up in valuable business opportunities too! End of the
day you succeed in bringing more hits to your website enhancing the positive
side of sales.

There are some websites which are in need of a tool to keep their visitors coming
back but do not have the resources to produce their own content. This content
“creation” strategy helps them to achieve that. By providing relevant selections of
content from other websites, they can maintain a regular traffic.

RSS Radars

RSS radars are about displaying syndicated content from other publishers on
your website in a very refined, high-focused manner. The content sources from
multiple websites are combined and filtered and created to form a single content
source with only the most relevant content from a very specific topic.

45
A good RSS radar should be able to capture and display the most highly relevant
content on a very specific topic. For example, a website covering the topic of
RSS might provide focused RSS radars for the following topics:

• Branded RSS readers


• RSS metrics and statistics
• Creating RSS feeds
• Power of RSS in marketing
• And so on

Each RSS radar focuses on the sub-topic of RSS providing information relevant
to that alone. Using RSS radars will not only be a valuable content source, but
will also increase your search engine rankings for that particular phrase.

Advertising through RSS

Though a small number of advertising networks are already offering RSS


advertising to advertisers due to the fact that many are unaware of the potentials
of RSS, it is yet to gear up in this field. Since it is a new advertising channel,
advertisers who go in early will achieve low prices and high success rates. They
can achieve as good results as Google Adwords or Google Adsense can. But not
many know this and so the RSS advertising prices are still very low. Currently
RSS providers are Feester, Pheedo, and Kanoodle to name a few with many
others slowly entering the market as well.

46
RSS Conversations

We know that basically marketing involves ‘conversations’. Is it possible using


RSS? Will it be as good as talking to a person across the table or at least over a
phone? The answer is going to be ‘yes’. RSS can be used as an excellent tool to
power marketing conversations. With the contents created by you traveling nook
and corner of the world it is quicker than talking in person with someone staying
at the other side of the globe!

Let us see how this can be achieved in the following simple steps:

Create a new content item on your website usually a blog


Distribute the contents via RSS to end-users as well as other websites
Now the contents reach multiple points, which in turn act as starting points
of content delivery to many more eyeballs (the ultimate goal is achieved –
getting numerous hits to your site!)
The dialogue (the contents) takes a life of its own and further spreads
through multiple online media, completely losing all structure.

Whenever a new website displays content items of your company it serves as the
starting point for a dialog. On one side, people keep posting their comments on
the actual website which weaves around the started dialogue and pour in
different views of the users from different parts of the world. Simultaneously, on
the other side, the dialog is further spread through other RSS end-users who are
subscribed to the RSS feeds published by new dialog starting points which again
spread your content or content on it on their own websites.

We also have something called the ‘automatic dialog facilitation’, which is also
another feature of RSS directories and aggregators. When your RSS content is
automatically syndicated by RSS directories and content aggregators, it spreads
your idea still further making it available to even more users.

47
When our aim is to achieve multiple conversations and receive feedback for your
idea spread via RSS, making use of “dialog facilitation” does it best. Though just
by getting your content syndicated to as many websites as possible, more traffic
is achieved the incredible power of RSS is felt only through dialog facilitation.

Dialog Facilitators are always alert of any news, opinions and other content
about the dialogue, which have started spreading through your RSS feeds. Once
the conversations have started it watches the Internet-space and keep track of
the content and also respond to all conversations, trying to facilitate them further.
They respond either in the form of blog comments or blog postings in their own
blogs. The response can also be in the form of writing articles and other content
(such as audio interviews). Then it is also distributed throughout the Internet.

Not only do they play an active role in spreading the conversations, but also in
initiating conversations reflecting the existing pulse in the market. They input
contents or articles depending on the trend available, thus trying to upgrade
conversations and prolong them.

They can also carry on conversations with other bloggers and invite more and
more visitors to enter into the conversation.

The power of the emerging tool - RSS

RSS is a very powerful tool yet to be understood fully by the marketers and
publishers. It is a many-in-one marketing & publishing tool giving the best results
when fully integrated in your Internet marketing strategy. It can be very
successful providing wonderful business solutions in various fields for each
individual marketing function.

48
Let us summarize the different aspects of RSS in the marketing and publishing
industry:

RSS acts as a content delivery channel for communicating with the users
assuring 100% content delivery and provides with promising business
development opportunities.
RSS acts as a promotional/visibility tool improving your site’s visibility,
generating more traffic, and enhancing the search engine ranking. It also
helps getting your content published on other sites. This again means new
visitors to your site, which in turn gives your site new subscribers and end
of the day new customers too!
RSS provides Conversations, which is content delivery and content
syndication put together. RSS conversations further spread your contents
throughout the Internet serving as a strong PR platform.
After having successfully gained prospective subscribers who are
interested in your product you can create your own branded RSS
aggregator and provide them with the same. This will ensure more reach
ability to your product, develop a constant relationship with your
customers and enforce a brand experience. When using a branded RSS
aggregator you have some additional benefits also. One is that it serves
as a sales platform for your own products. On the other hand, it can also
serve as an advertising platform for other products and thus generate
advertising income.
Your aim, being an advertiser or a publisher, is to satisfy the needs of your
visitors. The visitors’ come back only if they find accessibility to topics of
their interest. This is the bait for more business! Use RSS to syndicate
content from other websites also to continue attracting more visitors.
You can even make use of RSS radars focusing on several sub-topics for
the main content you cover. But ensure that you stick to the relevant
details of the areas you are trying to throw light on. Again additional

49
visibility especially through improved search engine rankings and
generation of new subscribers for your RSS feeds are the results.
These all create advertising venue, which means additional source of
income.
RSS advertising is slowly emerging and gripping many sectors that
dream to increase their sales and expand the exposure of their brands still
further in the marketing world.
Premium feeds can be sold which again opens a door to income.

Grab the power of RSS – free or at rock-bottom prices

Here is some great piece of news to top all the things we have learnt so far
about RSS. The money you shell out for getting such a powerful, problem-
free, versatile tool is very less. It plays safe on your purse!!
What more? If you are a small publishing/marketing company with midget
budgets and relatively basic marketing needs you can get it even absolutely
free of cost!
Moreover, it works on all platforms!

Sounds incredible!!! Is it not? But true to every word. So, why wait? Get going to
grab the latest trendsetter and unleash its power as one of the best Internet
marketing tools today.

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Chapter 7

BLOGGING: Who knows, it can be your goldmine.

One of the fields where the advantages of RSS feeds are extracted to the
maximum extent is ‘blogging’. Let us understand what a blog is before we
proceed further exploring the topic.

A blog, also known as web log, is basically a ‘diary-like-format’ website


containing entries in reverse chronological order with the most recent entry on
the top, enabled by easy-to-use tools and open for everyone to read. The entries
can consist of any content, which you would like to present to the viewers. By
bloggers we mean the users who take part in blogging. In blogs you can see
many links to other sites, the individual ideas and thoughts of bloggers on
anything and everything he feels like telling others through net (sharing his views,
to be more precise!) and other bloggers’ comments/suggestions on the available
topic of discussion etc. The authors may have different goals, uses or writing
styles but have one thing in common – the format. It is a ‘diary Web logs simply
provides a framework to express the bloggers’ views.

People may be motivated by different reasons under different environments. The


motivation behind posting on a topic may include:
• Starting a conversation, looking for a feedback
• Clarifying ideas or concepts, articulating ideas to understand them
• Capturing and organizing ideas to oneself or for others
• Contributing to an idea development by commenting or by connecting
different ideas

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With blogging gaining popularity day by day, the expansion of RSS is remarkable
reaching new heights and depths in various fields. Since some blogging soft
wares generate RSS feeds automatically, some people who maintain blogs
publish RSS feeds without even knowing they are doing so. Blogging need not
necessarily mean a personal affair it can also fuel business opportunities looked
upon by various marketers and publishers. Also many big companies are using
blogging to keep their employees, colleagues in various departments and
customers posted on the latest topic of discussion.

Blogging, though the name was coined by Jorn Barger during December 1997,
dates back to the time of invention of Internet. The Internet was started as a tool
for scientists, researchers, academic professionals, students and the
government. But, it took a real pace when it was explored for commercial
purposes. The early days of World Wide Web consisted of lots of personal sites
and free information, which made people take a tilt towards posting whatever
they wanted at any time.

Still, people are interested and they have more things to say than before! Users
are enthralled by the fact that they can create a website whose main purpose
was to give ongoing updates on anything – current affairs, social issues,
technical advances and so on. To top it all, they can give their opinions too!
These comments/opinions often written in a witty manner with a well-researched
outlook as well, hook people to read blogs. The fact that you need not get a job
as a reporter or a writer to publish your views to the reading world is what keeps
blogging on wheels since the day it was invented. Blogging is the true
democratization of publishing. Bloggers find it fun to write anything, anytime for
anyone, anywhere in the world.

The best part of the web log is that, you need not be a geek to be the master of
your web log. The most vital point to remember while having a web log is that, it

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should be updated regularly. If you are not doing that, your readers will loose
interest and will certainly go in search of better pastures to graze. After all there
is no meaning in hanging on somewhere, where there is nothing to read. If you
are in search of dollar, first formulate a frequency for your blog, which you are
quite comfortable with. A perfect blog is one which is daily updated with relevant
features. To blog daily, you need to manage your time, very carefully, unless you
have plenty of time with you. And who can argue the fact that the owner of a
quality blog also has some excellent time management techniques.

“Enthusiasm is like having two right hands.”


Elbert Hubbard

Six most unique ways to get connected with readers for


dollars
“Enthusiasm is like having two right hands.”

- Elbert Hubbard

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Businessman, without a story?

If you are in business, I am sure that, you will have a story to tell. If you think
otherwise, then take some time to ponder inside your mind to have introspection.
Most successful business blogs do this trick. When you tell your own story in an
intriguing fashion, your readers are bound to follow your words. It’s no wonder, if
you have failures in your business. Why can’t you blog on failures? Every one
explains about success only. And they say that failures are the stepping stones
to success. This can be the best way to show, that there is something unique to
read there. If you are able to give them something unique for the reader, and
then believe me, you have entered the blogosphere, to win their hearts. This is
very important because, blogs themselves have multiplied like anything and the
uniqueness in your blog can pamper your reader to have a close look.
http://www.ecademy.com is a place where you can see how; connections are
created between business personals for the betterment of every participating
member. It’s a win –win situation and no one is a loser there.

You are in business without knowledge?

If you tell me that you are not having any knowledge to share, I can’t say
anything but, you are awfully wrong. May be, if you were living in the 19th or 20th
century there would have been some sense in your argument. Now a days, you
need not mug up any thing to your brain and discourse it as and when required to
unloose your knowledge bag. And even if you are doing that, then also the
possibility that you are one among the top list of the knowledge providers is very
bleak. What matters now is only how up to date you are and how convincingly
you share your thoughts. Surprisingly the word obsolete has even become
obsolete to the extend that, today’s top knowledge content can find a place only
in your waste bin. So, what is the way out? Browse, browse and again browse,

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relevant content related to your business or what ever topics which can matter to
your reader.

This doesn’t mean that knowledge can’t come from experience. Some specific
knowledge you have acquired while in business can turn out to be so vital for
your client. Think that you are an avid software geek and you have found out a
virus in your computer and was able to delete it after several attempts. Now, if a
software specialist like you took that much time to get rid of the virus, think how
difficult it could have been for a layman. You very well remember this virus
episode and just live back your normal life. (Yes, I mean it; a computer virus can
make your life abnormal!). But in doing so, you are losing a golden opportunity to
connect with many readers. Mind you, there is no better way to “connect with
people” than by helping them, when they are in a difficult situation. And you can
be in their heart within no time, your only expenditure being your time.

Is art running in your blood?

In every possibility, you might have incurred some talents within you. If you
were able to pin down your art at some point of your life, well, you are there
ready to entice your readers with your creativity. It can be poetry, stories,
paintings, music or whatever of that sort. It is also possible that you are still
unaware of it. In that case, it’s high time to fire up your lost art. Now, even if you
have found out that, you are men or women without art, so be it. You need to
worry only for a few seconds; until you reach step 6.

Are you hiding yourself from others?

I just had a google search for the word “secret”. Mind you, I was a little bit
astonished. There were 167,000,000 hits! That means, if the demand and supply
are properly balanced, secret is one of the most sought after word in the net. So,

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what is the secret of secret being a hot key word? The answer is there in our
blood. We have an urge within us to go and seek the unrevealed. That is one of
the reasons why porn sites are still the hottest property in the net. Hmm…Don’t
worry I don’t want you to be a porn star to be there among the glittering ones
among the blogs. Am I gazing the unwanted pastures? My apologies, if I have.
So what is the business with the word “secret” and you? There can be something
in your life that is of interest to others. If you can divulge some of them, you can
make your readers on the edge, hooked up there waiting for your next blog.

Are you not interested in politics and current affairs?

This is one of the easiest things to do. If you have an opinion about politics or
politicians, then you can be ready with a blog on politics. Mind you, bloggers had
a say in the last election and “war on Iraq” was a hot topic. In fact, many of the
blogs have a journalistic touch in it. No wonder, blogs are often called as sixth
estate.

The sixth way – Another recipe to success

You can just blog on blogs! Many are doing it incredibly well. Even blogs are
overcrowded and if you are the one of those persons, who has that special talent
to convert a negative aspect into a positive one, there you are. You can browse
through many blogs and write about your opinion about them. Just showing some
links to other blogs may bring some traffic to your site. You may not be able to
hook up with your clients.
http://www.bloggingaboutblogs.blogspot.com/ is an example of such a site.

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The ethics you need to know before landing on the blog
world

a)Stick to the topic:

As far as blogging is concerned, you are invited to write about anything you
wish to. But it is necessary that the contents of items in the blog should all
relate to a general theme. The majority of your readers are keen about the
contents that relate to a specific defined theme or loosely defined area of
interest. For example, people may be interested in knowing what a healthy
breakfast should consist of rather than what you take for your breakfast! So
first decide the theme, define it and then stick to it. Once you are satisfied,
you have started a hot topic, leave the rest to the other bloggers who are left
with but the opportunity to weave interesting threads of contents, which are
sure to gain momentum with more number of encouraging bloggers! You can
also keep posting your comments every now and then adding color and vigor.

Post on current, hot topics:

While choosing the topic, go for the hot ones which would be of much interest
to many. Discussing about affairs which were on the news some months ago
may turn down your readers. If you want to keep your blogs alive and expect
good response, select a hot topic. Most of the bloggers may not prefer
discussing ‘history’ of events considering it a waste of time. This in turn will be
questioning the value of your columns.

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b) Be informative:

Creating a good impression is very difficult. If you are attempting one such
step, wanting to voice an opinion or endorsing a product, be sure to check
your facts. The views, which you are going to put forth, are accessible by
millions of people! If you are offering an opinion, be sure to qualify your post,
making it clear that the content is intended as an editorial.

c)Clarity and simplicity:

The contents you provide in the blog have to be clear and simple. Remember,
the web is global and expressions, idioms and acronyms don’t always
translate. When you make the entries easy to understand, it can go a long
way.

d)Adhere to a schedule:

Create a schedule and stick to it. Blogging requires time and effort. With new
blogs and RSS feeds popping up everyday, only hard work and good
presentation can develop an audience to your words. You would not want to
lose them due to lack of communication. So do not create unrealistic
expectations and be unable to deliver what you had wanted to. An occasional
lapse or holiday can be understood but readers returning to find stale, out-
dated content are going to find another blog with similar content.

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e)Not only quality, but also quantity matters:

One of your aims of blogging is to attract the attention of search engines. For
this, you will have to develop content and substance. Just a simple sentence
or a headline is going to neither generate the interest of readers nor will it
help with search engine ranking. It’s better to archive old blog posts to
develop a large portal of similarly-themed content. People who are interested
in those themes would generally want to come back again for their future
references, checking any information, which is of use to them.

f) Frequency:

Update your blog content frequently! Search engines will tend to spider the
pages at regular intervals.

g) Catchy keywords:

You must be aware of the fact that only when the title is catchy/attractive,
people tend to open the posts lest to read it! Each item should have a title that
will catch many eyeballs but still be relevant to the post. When the ultimate
goal of your blog is to increase your visibility, highlight the content by
including related keywords in the title of the blog. Ensure that the title is no
longer than 10-12 words.

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h)Spell-checking and proof reading:

Before you make the contents available for others, check it thoroughly for any
mistake. It takes hardly a few moments but will save you from having to make
embarrassing explanations. Always keep in mind that whatever you publish
on the Internet can be found and is on the move reaching numerous persons
throughout the globe. When you provide quality information, it can serve as
archive for future use. So think carefully and execute the checking procedures
before posting your article.

i) RSS
As we have already seen, the significance of RSS in reaching millions, the
blog’s content should be included in an RSS feed to increase readership and
distribution. RSS enhances the blog’s reach.

The average web log is a lightweight content management system. The


contents, which we can include in a blog, need not only be text entries but
also can be of sound or picture files. The system supports adding and editing
items and simplifies publishing to the Web, by processing content through a
set of pre-defined templates holding all the formatting information for a
particular visual presentation. While simple web log systems provide only a
chronological ordering of posts, advanced web log systems also provide
clustering entries into categories or labeling them with meta-data entries such
as keywords and topics.

Once the blog content is included in an RSS feed, the news aggregators or
RSS readers check subscribed web log feed for updates and display their
contents. In this way, the readers can keep up with many web logs and an
increasing number of other websites without navigating the actual WebPages.
This convenient way of monitoring many sources has led to use RSS feeds

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by many web log authors. It is not exaggeration to say that readers prefer
going for blogs with RSS feeds.

If understood properly web logs can be used professionally as knowledge


repositories, learning journals or networking instruments. There are many
blogs available in the market to quench the thirsts of professionals in various
fields. For example, med logs (web logs about health and medicine
http://www.medlogs.com) blawgs (law related web logs
http://www.blawgs.com) and edublogs (educational web logs
http://www.ebn.weblogger.com).

j) Choose hot titles

The readers often come to your blog just being attracted by the headlines.
More over, search engine also spider the titles. Having a relevant and catchy
title is a must if you want to turn the attention of the time-short readers.

Why people go for blogs?

There can be many reasons why people opt for blogging. To list some:

• Some do it out of curiosity or having been encouraged by others.


• Some find it interesting to organize their ideas and references. They also
may have a tilt to learning new things.

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• Many are driven by their interests in communication and the urge to share
their views and publish their thoughts.
• Some find it very useful to hone their techno-related skills, increase their
ability to pose questions, to distinguish between public and private etc.
• The readers find social effects of blogging, a positive point to resort to!
Amplified networking and relation building, making friends with similar
interests and tastes. They feel exuberant having found an easy method to
pour out their views.
• Web logging fits very well for IT related job professionals or anyone whose
job involves studying or using technology generally. Blogs are useful to
learn new ideas from people in the same line. Paves a new dimension for
learning, collaboration and knowledge sharing
• People whose jobs involve trend watching, collecting and aggregating
information, making notes and writing are also the ones giving an
overwhelming response to blogging.
• Blogging is also encouraged by people with suitable environment that
provide “right” conditions for it – time, freedom to communicate, Internet
connection etc.

Positive Reflections of blogging:

‘Blogging’ has become the latest buzzword of Internet. Each and every day users
are driven by curiosity and interests to take a dip in the ‘blogging’ sea. The day is
not far when majority of users would be turning into “bloggers”. The web logger
activities can be covered in two topics: developing ideas and developing relations
with others. Let us look into it to have a real feel of the effect ‘blogs’ produce:

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Developing ideas:

Web logging tools are not only easy for web publishing but also flexible and could
be used in a variety of ways. They prove to serve as instrument for organizing
and filtering information, articulating, developing and sharing ideas like in the field
of research etc.

Finding ideas/information:
Reading web logs of others with similar ideas helps you to filter ideas or
discover new web links to other valuable and interesting resources. Thus avid
web log authors act as “human-information routers” to like-minded readers.

Articulating, capturing and organizing ideas:


Web logs provide a platform to capture new ideas from the outside world and
to articulate one’s own ideas for future use. They provide opportunities for
categorization, retrieval of data via topic-based archives as well as
chronological ones.

Initiating and following conversations:


Web logs are used for developing ideas not only in a personal level, but also
through dialogues with others. Each web log posts can serve as a trigger for
conversation with regular blog readers or random web-surfers. We also have
distributed blog conversations. Some authors, instead of commenting
directly, prefer to post their comments in their own blogs providing a link to
the original post. This results in discussions scattered across many web logs,
also known as ‘blogologues’ or ‘blogosphere stories’.

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Developing relations with others:

Other than paving ways to expand your own ideas, organize contents,
discover new leads etc, blogging helps you to develop concrete relationships
with others. Blogs support community forming, developing relationships
across communities and conversational learning. Below we see some of the
bloggers’ activities on building relationships with others:

Representing oneself and tracing a path:

Many blogs serve as online identities for their authors. Professional blogs are
often compared with or used as “living” business cards. There are even
chances of getting job offers through blogs! Moreover, it is always good to
know about a person’s ideas before you start sharing your knowledge with
him. Blogs provide visible traces of a blogger’s expertise thus serve as a
starting point for knowledge-sharing connections with others.

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Spotting experts and cross-disciplinary connections:

Listing of the web logs regularly visited by their author is possible in blogging.
Such displays are called ‘blogrolls’. When another reader finds out the web
logs visited by the author and is interested in the topic, these links can serve
as sources to the reader to further explore, while the link is a sign of value
and personal recommendation by the author himself. This enables other
users to spot relevant contacts faster instead of wasting solid time searching.
Compared to closed professional associations, publications and conferences
the open nature of the blogs supports establishing cross-disciplinary
connections that fuel development of innovative ideas.

Bonding, building and maintaining connections with


others:

Regular reading of particular web logs sows the seed of relationship with the
web log authors who grow as days pass branching into solid knowledge
sharing and demanding experts’ advices. It also helps to maintain the existing
relationships since regular reading of blogs keeps you aware of the person’s
thinking and progress, allowing them to ‘stay on the radar’. They also reduce
the burden of finding out someone’s contact information as most of the
authors provide the details of various means to contact them in the blog itself.

Blogs are envisioned as prototype technology for enabling grass-root


knowledge management, triggering pilots and experimentation in companies.

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Their public nature provides researchers unique opportunities for observing
usually invisible trails of developing ideas and relations with others.

Blogging for ‘dollars’ using RSS:

Having got a complete picture about ‘blogging’, let us now move on to an


interesting topic – how to make money through blogging using RSS? We
have already explained how you can use RSS and blogs to get more traffic to
your site and to make a relationship with your readers. RSS, the multi-
dimensional tool, has the potential to help companies develop strong
relationships with consumers and creating brand loyalty with customers.
There are a number of reasons online businesses should consider using
RSS.

Blogging for dollars might sound like the latest game show, but it's the latest
craze to hit the Internet. Bloggers began blogging for a number of reasons,
but as the blog movement has increased in popularity, they have found ways
to monetize their blogs and are seeing their commitment pay off. When you
can earn while having fun, why not go for it?

The most popular ways for bloggers to earn some added cash for their pet
projects are:

a)Affiliate Programs (Product Endorsements)

Affiliate programs work when an affiliate web site receives income for
generating sales, leads or traffic to a merchant website. Generally, bloggers
will mention or endorse specific products and if site visitors purchase the
product, bloggers will receive a portion of the sale.

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b)Product Promotion

Businesses use blogs to detail how specific features or product add-ons can
increase functionality and save time. Content-rich product promotion will help
with search engine placement.

c)Banner Ads:

Websites, which have decent traffic, can make money by selling banner
space. Though this is less popular than the earlier days, it still exists and can
add to some revenue.

d)Advertisements in blog contents:

Some giant service providers allow webmasters to dynamically serve content-


relevant advertisements in blogs. Consider Google Adsense, for example. If
the visitor clicks one of the Adsense ads served to the blog, the website
owner is credited for referral. Webmasters need only to create a google
generated java script into the blog or blog template. Google’s spider parses
the Ad Serving blog and serves ads that relate to the blog’s content. Google
uses a combination of keyword matching and context analysis to determine
what ads should be served.

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Chapter 8

Let us sail the RSS Boat

How to go about with RSS?


As we have learned, RSS is a method of distributing links to content in your web
site that you'd like others to use. In other words, it's a mechanism to "syndicate"
your content.

To throw more light on the word ‘syndication’, let us consider our Television
channels. You have all related programs broadcasted in a single channel. If you
want to get your daily dose of Science, you tune into discovery channel. Here the
Discovery channel syndicates all science related programs for the viewers.

In similar lines, one can provide content that change often through RSS. RSS
feeds are considered as the best marketing tool that the Internet can ever
provide. They can also bring in a fair amount of traffic to your site if the content is
really worth it.

Footprints of RSS:

In the earlier days of syndication, people formulated various formats that worked
only with the service provider who developed that format. This led to a chaotic
environment where each service provider had his own format and the true
meaning of ‘syndication’ was lost in the war between these formats. One fine
day, Dan Libby of Netscape wanted to put an end to this chaos and formulated
RDF Site Summary, the mother of RSS.

RDF:

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RDF Stands for ‘Resource Description Framework’ and was primarily used to
represent information about resources in World Wide Web. It gave the power to
specify metadata (a description about the data) about a web page or anything
that could be identified on the web which includes the description of a surfer’s
preferences, information about a shopping cart item etc…

RSS Versions:

RSS 0.9:

The RDF Site Summary got christened as RSS version 0.9 and became the
defacto standard for RSS.

RSS 0.91:

July 1999 saw the next version of RSS, which was tentatively named, as RSS
0.91 by Netscape, in which RSS was expanded as ‘Rich Site Summary’. After
some time Netscape dropped its support for RSS. An irony since RSS was
widely used then. Meanwhile RSS-DEV, a working group set up by RSS users
started to take up the development of RSS.

RSS 1.0:

The RSS_DEV group Standardized RSS based on RDF and let out their own
version of the standardized format, RSS 1.0 on December 2000. This version
was designed with modularity in mind and used a metadata vocabulary, which
was borrowed from Dublin Core. At the same time User Land Software released
RSS 0.92, a minor modification of RSS 0.91.

Winer of User Land software published RSS 2.0 in 2002 and gave yet another
meaning to the three-letter abbreviation. Now RSS stood for “Really Simple

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Syndication”. It was backward compatible with RSS 0.92 and allowed to add
extension elements in separate namespaces.

In February 2004 the W3C published a significant revision of the RDF


specifications, which among other improvements included better support for
literal XML content.

Atom:

In reaction to perceived deficiencies in both RSS branches (and because RSS


2.0 is frozen with the intention that future work be done under a different name),
a third group started a new syndication specification, Atom, in June 2003, and
their work was later adopted by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF).

The relative benefits of Atom and the two RSS branches are currently a subject
of heated debate within the web syndication community. Supporters claim that
Atom improves on both RSS branches by relying more heavily on standard XML
features, by supporting auto discovery, and by specifying a payload container
that can handle many different kinds of content unambiguously. This, they say
will standardize the RSS specification which was missing in the pre-existing
versions of RSS. But the critics feel that Atom also does the same mistake as its
predecessors by introducing yet another branch of syndication specifications,
thus confusing the marketplace further.

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Which Version of RSS is more Popular?

RSS Versions and their Usage

0.9
0.91
0.92
2
Others

Going by the numbers from syndic8 we can infer that RSS version 2.0 is the
popular of all RSS versions. It is also backward compatible with RSS 0.92.

Basic Elements of RSS:

RSS conforms to the XML standard and thus is made up of tags that are similar
to XML. We shall see some tags that form the backbone of RSS.

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<rss> Tag :

This ubiquitous <rss> tag is called as the RSS root tag since this tag is the one,
which indicates that the document that we are creating is a RSS feed.

Commonly Used Attributes:


Version: this attribute specifies the version of RSS that is being used in the RSS
file.

<channel> Tag :

The channel tag is the one, which specifies the core subject of the RSS feed.
One can consider this tag as the grouping tag which groups different items under
one single title.

Once we define a channel it becomes mandatory to give it a Title, description


and location. These details could be provided using the following tags.

<title>

<description>

<link>

The name of the RSS feed is specified within the title tag.

A short description about the RSS feed is provided within the description tag.

The main page of the website providing the RSS is given in the link tag.

The Channel element also has other optional attributes or tags such as

<category> : This tag is used to specify the category of the RSS feed that we
are providing. These categories include business, entertainment, news,
technology etc...

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<language> : This tag specifies the language in which the web pages
linked by the feed are written. By specifying the language in this tag we can
facilitate the RSS feed reader to categorize the feed based on the language.

<lastBuildDate> : As the name suggests, this tag specifies the last updated
date for that RSS feed.

<managingEditor> : One can specify the RSS feed editor’s email ID within this
tag.

<ttl> : TTL is known as Time To Live in programming parlance.


Here it denotes the time for which the contents remains fresh. After that time
interval, the content of the feed becomes stale and thus the reader has to update
the content. There are other such optional tags available for channel element.
But then, we don’t want to bore you by jotting them down here, since they will be
only used in rare occasions.

Note: XML is case sensitive, meaning ‘XML’ is not equal to ‘xml’. Please be
careful when you code tags like <lastBuildDate> and <managingEditor>. If you
get your capitalization wrong then your RSS may not work.

<item> Tag :

Simply put, Items are the web pages that you want to publish using the RSS
feed. A RSS channel element contains one or more item elements. There exists
a striking similarity between item and channel elements when it comes to the list
of mandatory fields. The item tag also requires,

A title tag which gives a heading for that item,


A description tag which describes the item and

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A link tag which specifies the actual URL of the item. (webpage)

There are other optional tags available for use with the item tag. Some of them
are listed below.

<PubDate> : Used to specify the last published date of the RSS


item.

<author> : Specifies the name of the author for that item.

<comments> : Used to enclose comments.

<enclosure> : This is one of the important tags that is used to


embed an external file, say a song or a movie within
the item. This tag forms the backbone of Pod casting.

Now that we have seen the description about the commonly used tags in RSS,
we shall now start creating our own RSS Feed.

Creating your own RSS feed:


Welcome aboard!!!
We are going to embark the RSS journey by creating our own RSS feed.

So what do I need to know to create a RSS feed?


Hmm… Let me think…
You need to know
1. Theory of relativity
2. AstroPhysics

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3. Java Virtual Machine architecture
4. C#
5. JAXP, SOAP, UDDI, ABCD, EFGH etc…
Ok…Ok… I was just KIDDING… actually you need not know anything to create a
RSS feed, well if you just want it to do the basic things.

So to start off, you need to have a Web Page that has content that is worth
reading. If the content is boring, then even RSS can’t help you much in your
marketing endeavor.

Now that the content is ready, we want the whole world to know about our dream
product and the innovations that we had incorporated into it. Before we do that
lets first list out the contents that we are going to publish.

Step 1: Decide the content that you want to publish

Let us assume that we have decided to publish our ‘ACME super duper Glue’
product page, which is reachable at the following URL.

http://dreamproducts.com/glue.html

Now I shall write a small description for our product, which is going to be the
slogan of our product or the catchy line that is going to tempt the user to read on
further.
So…here we go…

‘Sticks everything together except broken hearts’

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Step 2: Creating the XML document

The next step is to create the RSS feed … time to kick some dirt…shall we?

i. Open up a Text Editor (No MSWord please…) and switch on the


character set to ASCII. If you are not sure about the character set
stuff then just open up Notepad.

ii. All XML documents start with a <xml> tag. Since RSS is also a
subset of xml we start our RSS feed with the <xml> tag

<? xml version=”1.0”?>

If you do not understand what XML is … please do not worry, there


is always Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V to help you out. And if you don’t know
what Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V are then… amen.

iii. Our next step is to say to the world that we are not any ordinary xml
page but a XML powered RSS page. We can do that by using the
<rss> tag
Now the file should look something like this.

<? xml version=”1.0”?>


<rss version="2.0">

</rss>

The version attribute indicates that our RSS feed conforms to RSS
2.0 standards.

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iv. Next we have to start a channel for our RSS feed. The concept of
channels is no different from that of the Television channel. You
see cartoons in Cartoon Network and Adrenalin pumping Action in
AXN. In the same lines all contents conforming to a specific subject
is grouped together as a channel in RSS. Assuming that we have
only one channel in our RSS offering, we include a single
<channel> tag.

Each channel has a title, description and a link associated with it.

Adding these elements with our channel tag we get a file that looks
something like this:

<?xml version=”1.0”?>
<rss version="2.0">
<channel>
<title>ACME DreamProducts Corporation </title>
<description>
Out of this world products, available only at ACME
</description>
<link>http://dreamproducts.com</link>
</channel>
</rss>

v. We have now reached the most exciting part of it. This is where we
define the programmes for our channel. In RSS parlance these
programmes are called as items. The item that we are going to
publish is our ACME super duper glue product page. Let us
consider a TV catalog; a program is described in the catalog as
follows.

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Friends – Star Plus – 11:30 PM (167 MHz)

Name of the Channel Other parameters to locate


program the program

Similarly, Our Item too has a set of attributes, which describe about
it.

The <title> tag specifies the name of the item.


The <description> tag contains a small description about the
content. (In our case, it going to be our product slogan)
The <link> tag provides the actual URL of our content.

Now that we know what tags are used to describe an item, we shall
now create an item for our ACME Glue product.

<item>
<title>ACME Super Duper Glue</title>
<description>
Sticks everything together except broken hearts
</description>
<link>
http://dreamproducts.com/acmeglue.html
</link>
</item>

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vi. If you have any other revolutionary product then you can create
another item and place it after our previous item.

vii. And here it is… our RSS feed file:

<?xml version=”1.0”?>
<rss version="2.0">

<channel>

<title>ACME DreamProducts Corporation </title>


<description>
Out of this world products, available only at ACME
</description>
<link>http://dreamproducts.com</link>

<item>
<title>ACME Super Duper Glue</title>
<description>
Sticks everything together except broken hearts
</description>
<link>
http://dreamproducts.com/acmeglue.html
</link>
</item>

<item>
<title>ACME Do-It-Yourself Space Shuttle Kit</title>
<description>
ACME in association with NASA proudly presents…
</description>
<link>
http://dreamproducts.com/acmespaceshuttle.html
</link>
</item>

</channel>

</rss>

We shall save the file with extensions as .xml or .rss. Both will work fine. Let us
save the file as acme.rss

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No, give yourself a pat on the back… you have successfully created a RSS
feed!!!

Step 3: Publishing your RSS Feed

Now that your file is validated, you want the world to know about it! To make this
happen, visit the RSS directories and search engines. They generally offer
submission pages, where you can inform them of your feed.

One such site is http://www.2rss.com.

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You also want to make sure that people who come to your web site see that you
provide a feed. It's very common to post a link to the feed somewhere on the
home page of a web site. If you have a dedicated news page, you may want to
put it there, as well.

You can link to your feed with an ordinary HTML link. However, many sites use a
small orange XML icon to link to the feed. Some sites also use blue RSS icon.

And finally…

If you think the whole stuff is intimidating then you can skip this whole RSS feed
creation stuff and point your browser to

http://www.webdevtips.com/webdevtips/codegen/rss.shtml

Here the RSS Feed will be automatically generated…. All you have to do is to
specify the URL of your content page.

RSS Creating Software:


If you want to utilize the full feature set of RSS that these online RSS generators
don’t provide and at the same time you don’t want to hand code each and every
line of your XML file you can try RSS creation soft wares. Now you don’t need to
compromise on the features that your RSS can provide.

FeedForAll is one such software that could be downloaded at

http://www.feedforall.com/software.htm

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FeedForAll is available for both windows and Mac platforms as of now…
Download the appropriate version from the website.

After downloading and installing the software, Run FeedForAll. You will be
welcomed with a splash screen. FeedForAll is a software that is available as a
time based trial software. You can launch the trial application by clicking on
‘continue’ the software will work only for 30 days after which one have to
purchase it and enter the registration key to continue using that software.

82
After loading the application one can create RSS in two ways

• Use the wizard that will walk you through the RSS creation process.
• Manually navigate to the Channel or items and enter the text for
title, description and link fields.

We shall first use the FeedForAll wizard to create our RSS feed. This
wizard could be launched by clicking

Feed->Wizard

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An introductory screen about the wizard is splashed once the wizard
button is clicked. Just click on OK and go ahead.

84
Next comes the Title screen. Here you have to enter the title (name) of the feed.
These fields are mandatory for a feed. If you are sharp enough, you can find that
this field corresponds to the ‘title’ attribute of the channel element in our RSS file
that we created before.

85
Next comes the Description screen where one can enter the description of
the channel.

86
Then comes the screen where you can enter the name of our website. This
field corresponds to the link attribute of the channel element of RSS.

87
Every RSS feed should have at least one Item. Thus you will be presented an
Item entry screen after you finish configuring the Channel element. Entering an
Item is quite similar to that of the channel (or Feeds, going by the screenshots
that are presented here).

If you still feel lost, you can always come back to the screenshots given below
which will give you some insight on configuring an Item.

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89
90
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Once you finish entering an item you can either click ‘Finish’ or you can continue
to add more items by clicking on ‘Add Item’

I chose to stop with one item and thus clicked finish .You will then be taken to the
main screen which has all these details filled in appropriate columns.

92
Clicking on the feed, item
tabs will populate their
details such as title,
description etc here

93
And for those people who are curious about the ‘pub date’ field in the
screenshot, it just specifies the date on which the Feed or the Item is published.

94
And before we wrap off, I have got a surprise for you. Wouldn’t it be nice if we
can use the software to do all the hard work but can also see what it is up to if we
really want to?

Yes, we can see what the software has created for us by clicking the ‘view
source XML’ menu item which is highlighted in the previous screenshot.

95
Here it is… the final output of the software…

96
And for the people who prefer to enter these details manually, you can exit the
wizard and start typing in the details in appropriate columns as shown below.

97
Another Example:

We have provided a ‘behind the scenes’ captures in the following pages. This is
a live site and let us explore the whole story.

Feel free and explore them.

Here is the web page which has the article that is to be published.

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100
101
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Once the feed was generated, The resulting XML file was validated using the
online validator from http://www.feedvalidator.org . The result is shown below

105
The links to the RSS Feed that we created was listed as a separate webpage as
displayed below.

That’s it guys, the RSS feed is published and ready to go.

Note: You can also embed audio (pod casting) and video (video casting) in your
feeds using the <enclosure> tag.

RSS Aggregator: If the term ‘RSS Aggregator‘ sounds scary, you will be
relieved to hear that they are nothing but software that are used to read RSS
feeds. They are also known as News Aggregators.

In order to read the RSS feeds the users will need such RSS aggregators. Just
google for RSS Aggregators and you will find a whole list of aggregators that you
can use.

106
How Do I Read RSS Feeds?
If you want to read the RSS feeds, you need a News Aggregator or RSS
Aggregator. If you are one of the lucky persons, who use Opera to browse, then
you can rest easy, since Opera has a RSS reader built in. If you need more
functionality or your browser doesn’t have any aggregators built in, you can
always download the RSS reader software from the Internet.

One such RSS reader is Feed Reader, which could be downloaded at


http://www.feedreader.com

For Mac users NetNewsWireLite is available at http://ranchero.com/netnewswire


Linux users can get Lifera at http://liferea.sourceforge.net

In order to read a RSS feed you must first subscribe to it. You can subscribe to
RSS feeds by clicking on the orange XML icon or the blue RSS icon, which will
be displayed in the websites.

We have provided a step-by-step, do-it-yourself demo using Feed Reader below:

Step 1: Launch Feed Reader :

Once you launch Feed Reader, you’ll be welcomed with a screen that looks as
follows:

107
Step 2: Subscribe to an RSS Feed :

You can subscribe to an RSS Feed by directly entering the URL of the feed.
This can be done by clicking.

File->Add Feed

108
You get a dialog box asking for the URL of the RSS feed.

109
If you are not sure about the URL then just click on the icons like

Once you click them in IE you see something like this…Do not worry if you
cannot understand the content that is displayed. All you need is the URL of this
page.

110
Just copy paste the URL i.e. text in the address bar of your browser in the Add
feed window of the Feed Reader (shown in the previous screenshot) then click
‘Next’.

Feed Reader prompts you to enter the category under which the feed is to be
placed.

111
After selecting the category, click ‘Finish’. Now you can see the title of the feed
that you had registered in the feed list.

All the items in the feed are displayed in the right pane. If you want to read any
item just double click on the title that is displayed in the right pane. The feed
content will be opened in the bottom right pane as shown in the screenshot.

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Items in the feed

Subscribed Feed List Item content (the associated web page)

Whew! That was quite a mouthful, wasn’t it? Anyways, you are now equipped
with the powerful marketing weapon which will make marketing a breeze.

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Conclusion

The RSS technology has come here to say and in all possibility may make the
present content management and publishing systems a thing of past. You are
now armed with all the vital weapons required to grab your part of the RSS pie.
Now it’s time to pass on the RSS ball to your court.

Good luck!!!

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